Smugglers of the Sahara
by KeybladeDetweiler
Summary: Told from the POV of Henessey Corvin (My OC, daughter of I-1 agent Henry Corvin), the story follows the Quests as they head to the Middle East and stumble upon a smuggling operation.


I'm standing near the door to room 735 of a hospital in Paris. The occupant is not family, not an idol or celebrity, but rather a mother to a friend. Even though I wasn't asked to come, I came anyway. I diverged from my vacation plan, which today would have involved a visit to the Louvre museum and a picnic under the Eiffel Tower, the latter sadly canceled due to pouring rain. _This is my first visit to France, and I'm missing out on some of the most famous sights to come see a sick person _I scold myself. Even though the adventurous side of me is yearning to hop a cab from here to the Louvre, in hopes that the tour group hasn't left the museum yet, I've stayed. Only because one of my closest friends is losing the one person that he loves the most. His mother.

Jonny and I met a couple years ago, when my father, known as Corvin to most, finally agreed to take me to meet one of the top scientists at I-1, Intelligence One, the government agency my Dad works for. We were in Munich, Germany at one of the churches for a concert, and Jonny and his mother attended the performance, as planned so that they could meet us. After the show, my Dad introduced me to Jonny and his Mom, Judith Quest. His Dad hadn't been able to come as he was at a conference, but my Dad said that we'd meet him at dinner. While Dad and Mrs. Quest talked, I introduced myself to Jonny who at the time was seven. Besides having Dads who worked with I-1 (Even though Dr. Quest works with them sparingly), we also moved around a lot, and so didn't have many friends. We're also part of a very small minority of kids whose parents were with I-1. There are only a couple others besides us, and they are total jerks, so it's very hard to find a friend in my situation. So as soon as we had met and talked for a while, he told me that he'd be my friend, and so there I stood, to the bewilderment of onlookers, exchanging phone numbers with a seven year old boy. I had just turned twelve at the time, and so a lot of people looked on, amazed that I'd do such a thing with someone much younger than me, even though he was due to turn eight in a week. Even though we're years apart, we have so much in common, and so a friendship began. Hennessy (That's me, by the way), and Jonny.

Jonny and I kept in close touch. We talked to each other over the phone nightly, sent each other letters and pictures, and whenever my Dad had to go see Dr. Quest, Jonny's dad, I went with him so that I could see Jonny. His life and mine weren't too different. He travels the world on a weekly basis, as do I. It was not until recently when I was offered a tour of France from Dad for completing my French class. My grandmother agreed to go with me, because at thirteen, I'm still too young to go to another country alone, and if it were not for her, I would not be here in this hospital, waiting to see Jonny and his ill mother. I had heard the news from a telegram that had been sent to our hotel from Jonny and Dr. Quest after they had learned that I was in France. I was very eager to see them again, since I hadn't seen Jonny for a year (He was nine around this time) but the tour stood in my way. Grandma had had to pull quite a few strings to get me out of the tour in order to get here, but for a friend, I knew it was worth it. So, here I was, keeping myself occupied by reading a travel guide of France.

After another ten or twenty minutes of waiting, a nurse came out of the room, and told me that I could come in. After putting away the travel guide, I stood up, picked up my backpack, and entered.

The room was deathly quiet, except for the beeping of the life support machines. Dr. Quest, and another doctor, the one assigned to Mrs. Quest I assumed, stood near her bedside, discussing her condition. Jonny sat with one leg crossed over the other, in a chair at the foot of her bed. His face solemn as he looked at his dying mother. I could tell that things weren't looking up.

"The illness she has is very strange Doctor," said the medical man. "We do not recognize it, and therefore have no way of treating it."

"Are you sure there is nothing you can do?" asked Dr. Quest desperately.

"No. There is nothing more we can do. Spend as much time as you can with her. She will be intermittently conscious. I am sorry." The medical doctor then strode out of the room to attend to other matters. Dr. Quest sighed heavily.

For the first time since entering the depressing room, I laid my eyes on Mrs. Quest. I'd hoped that I wouldn't do it. I didn't want to really. It's always painful to look at a person that you knew to be so lively, fun-loving, and adventurous, only to see them on their deathbed, either very ill and in pain, or asleep but not quite passed on. Mrs. Quest had been quite the adventurous person. At least, according to Jonny. She woke him up at five o'clock in the morning everyday, and was always planning exciting things for them to do. I went with them on a few of these adventures, that is, I did if I was around. I didn't know her too well, but I could tell that she was a wonderful person. She had been everything to Jonny. She had taught him how to read, how to water ski, to swim, basically everything, since he's never gone to a public school, and since he's never had any friends, not counting me, she was his best friend. And now, he's losing her. I can't bear looking at her; she looks so still and quiet, and so miserable. She was usually a very jubilant person, always making up jokes and laughing and smiling. Now, she looks nothing like that person. Her skin is very pale, paper white. And her usual smile is gone.

I stand in the doorway silently, not sure what to do. No one has noticed me yet, and I'm not sure if I want them to, really. It's an awful time for them and I want to just disappear, just go back to my touring and pretend that I never saw any of this. But I can't. I step forward and place my backpack on an open chair beside the one Jonny is in. Then, I speak.

"Hello, Dr. Quest. Hi Jonny."

Dr. Quest doesn't seem to hear me, but Jonny does. He turns around and sees me and his face lights up ever so slightly.

"You came! You got the telegram!" he cries. He gets up and runs over to me, and I wrap my arms around him. "I just knew you'd come." he whispers.

"Of course. I'd never pass up on the chance to see you. Are you okay?" I ask, as I let go of him.

"I'm fine, but…" he trails off, and then begins to sob.

"I know. I heard." Then I'm holding him again. I can't help it. Who could? He is in so much pain, so much suffering. I want to hold him forever, so that he doesn't have to watch and wait as his mother dies. So that he doesn't have to go through anymore pain. But I can't hold him forever, so I let go. The front of my shirt is tear soaked, but I don't care. I know that he needs me. I place an arm around his shoulder to console him as he sobs. Eventually, after the sobbing has stopped, Dr. Quest takes Jonny out of the room and to the Cafeteria to speak with him. Probably about what it's like when someone dies, like whether or not they feel pain, if they're still themselves. I asked these questions when my Mom died. I was seven, and she died of pneumonia that she had caught on top of a cancer she'd already had. It was too much for her, and she passed away a little while afterwards.

My Mom was the exact opposite of Jonny's. Instead of planning adventures, she planned lunches, shopping trips, parties, and other girly things. She taught me how to play piano, to bake, to sing, and all the other basics of being a lady. I had followed her unwillingly. I preferred going on trips to foreign countries, camping, biking, skiing, and swimming. I also read and wrote more than I sung and played piano. And my choice in clothing, which usually consisted of t-shirts, pants, and sneakers, always made her cringe. I never wore, and still don't like to wear skirts and dresses, unless of course, there's a special occasion. I always tried to avoid her plans, whether that meant procrastinating on schoolwork so that I could have it as an excuse, playing sick, or signing on for work at I-1, like helping the secretary, or doing a number of miscellaneous tasks. Either that or I made it a point to plan something with Grandma or Dad for the same date as what she was planning.

Even though I didn't enjoy spending time with her, I still miss her. But I get along fine. For Jonny, it will be different. His Dad is always busy with work, and so once his Mom's gone, he won't have anyone. He doesn't have someone who can spend time with him freely, like I have my Grandma. He's got no one.

Or at least, that's what I thought, until I heard Dr. Quest say this when he came back into the room.

"They're sending us one of their best agents, a Roger Bannon, to protect us. He's on his way right about now."

Roger Bannon…..I knew that name from somewhere. Maybe one of my Dad's colleagues or an I-1 agent or something. I dunno. I decide to figure it out later. Then, Jonny, whose face is still solemn and whose eyes are red from tears, says to his Dad, "I'm going to go for a walk, okay Dad?"

"Sure son." Dr. Quest replies, turning to speak with the medical Doctor.

As Jonny goes out the door, I impulsively get up to follow him. When I've made it out of the room, he's halfway down the hall, and so I walk quickly to catch up to him. When I'm by his side, he acknowledges me, but keeps his head down, staring at his feet as we walk.

"What did your Dad say?" I ask him, even though I'm certain that I know the answer.

He doesn't say anything for a while, but then finally he answers me.

"He told me that when she dies, she won't be hurting. And that even if she's not herself after she's gone, she'll still be alive, in our hearts." He replies.

"Yeah. Y'know, my Mom used to tell me that when we die, we go to a better place. Just think about that. She'll be going to a better place."

"I guess you're right."

Quietly, we turn back towards the room, and we pass a large round window. Outside, it's pouring rain. I stare out the window for a moment, and see a figure coming towards it. Coming _fast_. I only have a moment to quickly send Jonny to the ground and cover him up protectively before a man with white hair and a striped shirt crashes through the window, sopping wet and groggy.

Jonny looks up at the man in shock. I promptly get off of him and we help the man up as he asks our names.

"Jonny Quest."

"Hennessey Corvin."

He looks at Jonny, and then says, "I'm Roger Bannon. I'm here…..to…..protect…..you." before falling to the floor from the exertion.

I look at the man who has been assigned to protect Jonny and Dr. Quest. At the moment, he looks to be in terrible condition. But he has a strong muscular build, and if he crashed through the window, he must have gone through a lot to get here. The agents who've been targeting Dr. Quest must have known that protection was coming, so they targeted him.

Finally, the man's up again, and looks as ready as he'll ever be. He then asks Jonny, "Where's your Pop?"

"In my Mom's room. I saw a man go in there a little while ago….."

Then we're running down the hall and back to the room. By the time Jonny and I make it in there, Roger Bannon has sent a man who looks almost identical to him to the ground with a painful blow, to the shock of Dr. Quest. The look-alike gets up and begins to retreat into the hallway, but not before Bannon punches him five more times, and with each hit he says something different like, "This is for losing my luggage!" or "This is for the five hour run in the rain!" He vents all his anger out on the guy, and eventually the victim's on the floor, unconscious, and Bannon is introducing himself to Dr. Quest.

The next day, we're all there when Mrs. Quest passes on. The Doctors turn the machines off at last, because they've become useless. We all sit in silence for a while, until Dr. Quest, Jonny, and their new bodyguard, leave. I use a payphone to call a cab and then meet my Grandma back at the hotel and tell her the story.

"What an exciting time that must have been." She exclaims as she packs her suitcase and I mine. Today was the last day of the trip.

"Yeah. The twist with the bodyguard crashing through the window and punching the daylights out of the enemy agent was pretty amazing, but other than that, it was really a depressing visit. Jonny was heartbroken when his Mom finally died."

"Don't worry. Eventually, he'll be back to his old self. I bet that you being there helped him a lot."

"I hope."

"Hurry and finish packing. We'll miss the plane."

In no time at all, we're on the plane and headed home.

_Two years later _

Today, my Dad announced that he'd be going to see Dr. Quest about a new assignment from I-1. It's not often that there's an I-1 assignment for Dr. Quest, and so I get excited. If I'm lucky, I'll get to go with them for the first time ever, and it will hopefully be somewhere foreign. And I will be without any relatives. At fifteen, I should be allowed to go it alone.

"Hurry and get packed Hennessey. Unless you'd rather stay and file paperwork." My Dad says as he grabs his briefcase and luggage and heads for the private jet that awaits us just outside of I-1's headquarters. Our lodging is here, at least it's been since Grandma passed away and we lost her and her house. I bolt back to my room and throw everything into my suitcase. I zip it up fast and then grab it and my backpack, and then run outside and, after dropping off my luggage onto the luggage cart, onto the jet. I whoosh past a flight attendant, who directs a "humph" at me, and then I finally slow down and enter the cabin. I put my backpack up in a storage closet above me, and click it shut. Then, I flop down into the comfy chair just below it, panting heavily.

"You know, there's no reason to run like that. I'd never leave you." My Dad says from the seat across from me. He's reading a copy of the _New York Times_.

The flight attendant sourly hands me a bottle of cold water. I uncap it and drink greedily before looking up at my Dad and saying,

"I know. But I'm excited. I haven't seen them in, well, forever."

"It's only been a few months."

"It feels like forever."

He smiles at me, and then turns his attention back to his paper. I stare out the cabin window as the jet prepares to take off.

A lot has changed since that day when Jonny's mom died. First, he got a new dog named Bandit, who is a mix between a pug and a bulldog, and who's a total nuisance. Second, he got an adopted brother from India named Hadji, who does all sorts of amazing magic tricks, like levitation and hypnotism, and who I've also become friends with. Hadji's also very wise, and usually proves to be smarter and wiser than Jonny. Roger Bannon, now known as Race, tutors them and also assists Dr. Quest with his work. The Quest family has gotten much bigger, at least by my standards, while mine has gotten smaller with the loss of my Grandma. But I'm past that, just as Jonny is past the loss of his Mom. He's back to his old self, just as Grandma said he'd be. And he's always happy to see me.

After we've been in the air for about five minutes, I pick up my newest copy of _National Geographic_ and read it. I'm deeply into an article about a lost Mayan city that's recently been discovered, when the pilot announces that just below is Palm Key, the Island off the coast of Florida that the Quests live on. As soon as we land, I'm off the plane and embracing Jonny and Hadji, who were on the beach the moment they saw the jet.

"Jonny! Hadji! I'm so glad to see you! How've you been?" I ask them.

"Oh, fine! We just came back from Central America!"

"Central America? What were you doing there?" I'm truly interested, because the lost city I was reading about is in Central America.

"Dad was looking for artifacts in the lost Mayan city of Malatan."

"Mayan city? That must be the one I just read about in _National Geographic_."

I guess I had skipped over the name, but now I knew it. Malatan.

Jonny and Hadji tell me all about what had happened on their adventure, from a toucan joining their group and saving Bandit's life, to Jonny discovering the lost treasure of the city, only to discover that a Brit named Perkins was after the treasure. They then spoke of a native whom they had rescued and who helped them escape and defeat Perkins. After their story is finished, Race comes and tells us to go inside.

The Quest home on Palm Key functions as both a lab and a home. Part of the building is the labs where Dr. Quest does his work, and the other part is their home, complete with all the necessities. While Dr. Quest, Race, and my Dad meet in the lab area, Jonny, Hadji, and I head to the living room and start watching a movie. It's not long until the adults return and tell us that the Quest's assignment involves a trip to Africa, in the Arabic area of the continent. Supposedly, a sheik in the area is doing something massively dangerous and illegal…I don't pick up on the details, but the Quests are staying at his palace as guests in order to investigate. After Jonny and Hadji have gone to their room to pack, I walk over to my Dad.

"Dad, can I go with them? Please?" I ask.

"Don't you want to stay at the Plaza hotel again? After all, my business in New York lasts a week. And you said that you loved staying at the Plaza." He says as he tries to dissuade me.

Dad's referring to our next stop. He has I-1 business in New York City, and he got a room for us at the Plaza hotel. I won't deny that the Plaza is a fun hotel to stay at, with all the amenities and such, but when placed up next to a trip to Africa, which will include a stay in a sheik's palace, the Plaza looks like a motel and New York looks like a small town. After all, they charge for amenities at the Plaza, and Dad doesn't always pay for them. And the room service guys and attendants even try to force you into giving them tips! But as a guest, amenities at a palace are free. And no tip is required. Plus, a palace is a mysterious place to explore, as is Africa, and I've visited New York City and stayed at the Plaza plenty of times. The experience has really gone stale.

"Nah. The Plaza is fine, but a palace is finer. And New York City is really starting to get boring." I reply.

"The sheik is only expecting Dr. Quest, Race, and the boys. An extra guest might be a problem. And what if he tries to take you as his wife? You know the culture over there."

"Then you can send some I-1 agents over there to kick his royal butt. Or Race could. Or, better yet, you could come over there yourself and forbid it. After all, fathers are able to intervene with the marriages of their daughters, right?"

"Right. Well, if Dr. Quest doesn't mind you coming, I suppose you can go."

"Really? Great. Can we ask him?"

"We'll ask him over lunch. How's that sound?"

"Good to me."


End file.
